Mac Pro & FCP Performance

macrumors newbie

Hey all. Soon I will be purchasing a Mac Pro primarily for FCP use. Everyone talks about how programs need to be threaded or optimized to utilize the Mac Pro's four processing cores. How well is FCP coded to do this? Will 5.2.1 take fuller advantage of the Mac Pro? Just crurious before my credit card explodes.

macrumors 6502a

Hey all. Soon I will be purchasing a Mac Pro primarily for FCP use. Everyone talks about how programs need to be threaded or optimized to utilize the Mac Pro's four processing cores. How well is FCP coded to do this? Will 5.2.1 take fuller advantage of the Mac Pro? Just crurious before my credit card explodes.

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5.1 works very well on the Mac Pro, and Compressor takes full advantage of all four cores. Just get as much memory as you can afford

macrumors member

5.1 works very well on the Mac Pro, and Compressor takes full advantage of all four cores. Just get as much memory as you can afford

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Actually I don't know if I've ever seen FCP or compressor use 100% of each core. FCP usually maxes out at 75%/core when rendering anything. Compressor (while still very fast) doesn't seem to use them all either. It's weird because sometimes it uses only half for large periods of time and eventually will work up to 90% if you're lucky. I haven't done huge amounts of tests yet, but so far this is what I've found. Anyone have other experiences? I've got 2GB of Ram, 1GB is from Crucial.

macrumors 68040

Right, Final Cut Studio does not take advantage of all 4 cores, unless you're using two apps, two cores per app. I'm really hoping the next update gives us full usage of all 4 cores. Compressor running 4 cores would be cool, FCP rendering with all 4 cores would be bloody orgasmic (well, not really, but it would be pretty sweet)

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